car

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /kɑː/, US /kɑːr/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English carre, borrowed from Old Northern French carre,^[2][3][4] from Vulgar Latin *carra,^[2][5] related to Latin carrum or carrus (“two-wheeled wagon, Celtic war chariot”) (plural carra).^[2][3][6] The Latin word is of Celtic origin, from Gaulish karros,^[2][7] and its Celtic relatives include Old Irish carr (“wagon, chariot”), Welsh car and Breton karr (“chariot”).^[2][7][5] Etymonline and Watkins trace it to Proto-Indo-European *kers- (“to run”),^[2][8] the root of currere (“to run”).^[3][6] The same Latin word gave French char, Italian carro and Spanish carro.^[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A wheeled vehicle, a cart or wagon: first in the surname Careman (1301), then about 1350 in a psalter.^[3][9][2]

Semantic evolution

From the 16th to the 19th century car was chiefly a poetic word, carrying associations of dignity, solemnity or splendour, as in a funeral car.^[2][9] In the United States it was used of railway freight wagons by 1826, passenger carriages by 1830 and streetcars by 1862,^[2] and the cars meant a railway train from 1831 into the early 20th century.^[2] The basket of a balloon has been a car since 1783.^[10] The word was first applied to the motor car in 1896,^[3][2] although self-propelled road vehicles had existed since the steam carriage of 1769.^[9] Car bomb is from 1972, in Northern Ireland.^[2]

Timeline

• 1301 – in the surname Careman.^[3]
• c. 1350 – any wheeled vehicle.^[3]
• 1783 – the car of a balloon.^[10]
• 1826 – a railway wagon (US).^[2][10]
• 1830 – a railway passenger carriage (US).^[2]
• 1862 – a streetcar.^[2]
• 1896 – a motor car.^[3][2]
• 1972 – car bomb.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. An automobile.
2. A vehicle that runs on rails, such as a streetcar or railway carriage.
3. The enclosure that carries passengers or goods in a lift or cable car.
4. The part of a balloon or airship that carries people and cargo.
5. (literary) A chariot, carriage or cart.

Word family

• carless
• carsickness
• carfare
• carman
• carbarn
• carful
• carhop
• carjacking

Related words

• carriage
• chariot
• career
• cargo
• carry
• charge
• current
• caricature

Usage notes

Scots has a separate car meaning “left, left-handed”, from Scottish Gaelic cearr.^[11][12]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
11. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
12. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster